Spain festival sets Motion lineup

Showcase takes place Sept. 22

Debut features by prominent short filmmakers — Palestinian Najwa Najjar’s “Pomegranates and Myrrh” and Moroccan Mohamed Chrif Tribak’s “Le temps des camarades” — are included in the San Sebastian Festival’s prestigious Cinema in Motion lineup.

Breaking through to recognition with “Yasmine’s Song,” which screened at Berlin, Najjar’s “Pomegranates” is a star-crossed lovers tale set in the ravaged contempo Palestinian territories. Pic drew Palestinian financing, a rare coup.

“Camarades,” a dramedy set in the early 1990s about Morocco’s last politicized generation of students, follows Chrif Tribak’s docu short “El Balcon Atlantico.”

Cinema Motion will also showcase brothers drama “Tu te souviens d’Adil?,” from Morocco’s Mohamed Zineddaine, and “Chou Sar?,” in which cineaste De Gaulle Eid returns to northern Lebanon, where his family was massacred in 1980.

Offering sneak peeks of films seeking completion financing, Motion attracts pics that often go on to find major fest berths, sales agents and sales, such as “Je veux voir” and “Salt of This Sea,” both selected for Cannes.